S-Class Trials X794 Aiden: Part 2
Aiden was glad that he had passed the first part of the trials and was prepared for the second one. Fire. Another element that can be easily manipulated by others. The only problem is that the fire is on a volcano, so Aiden would have to be careful about what he destroys, in order not to be cooked. Aiden makes his way to the starting line along with his guild mates by his side. The race is then started and everyone goes off. Aiden stays behind once again scanning for any obstacles or traps that he might easily run into before making his way. He then starts running. Taking in the scenery, Aiden sees a series of trees and shrubs that line the path at the base of the mountain. He comes up to a fork in the path. He sees a series of footprints at the path leading to the left, they seem irregular and short. To the path to the right he sees no footprints in the mud, but hears a faint sound of what sounds like Niklas and Scorpius arguing with one another. "''Who knows what could have made those tracks in the mud. It is weird that their aren't any tracks on the right so I should still tread lightly. I should probably stop those two from fighting, they're friends, even in competition." ''Aiden thought to himself. So Aiden took the path to the right. He travels down for only a mere 30 feet or so, and could hear Niklas and Scorpius' voices get louder. The voices suddenly disappear as he runs into a stone wall blocking his way on the path. Aiden, being the clever man that he is, just moves to the left as to walk around the wall. As soon as he takes two steps, the arguing of Niklas and Scorpius can be heard at an overwhelming volume. Then three surrounding walls of stone appear around Aiden, trapping him in a box. A spider like creature, with scythes on two of his arms, crawl to the top of the walls and opens its mouth the release inaudible screeches. The screech itself sounded familiar to Aiden... he then realized it sounded like the voices of his fellow guild mates that took off up the mountain before him! The creatures saliva dripped down from it's razor sharp teeth as it peered down on Aiden. ''"Where did these walls come from?" ''Aiden quickly tries to destroy the wall that the wall the spider is on top of to try and bring it down with the wall. The spider drops to the ground, the walls crumbling with it. The spider stomps down on ground and the pieces of rubble float in the air and shoot towards Aiden. The spider opens its mouth and seems to speak with Aiden. "Run fa...ou Can't...Win...ot Gonna lose!" The beast cries out. It's voice jumps between the words of Umi, Nagisa, and Scorpius; echoing parts of sentences it must have heard when the mages passed by earlier. It's perfectly replicated tones of the Koma Inu mages, almost as if a recording was being played back to the Crash mage standing before the beast. Aiden first of all wonders how the spider seems to have recorded all of these voices. As the spider jumps towards Aiden, he uses his point break attack to create a small hole underneath him allowing the spider to go over him. As the spider goes over, Aiden punches upwards straight into the thorax of the beast. The exoskeleton of the spider cracks a bit, but the spider lifts up its legs and attempts to slice the mage beneath it. The spider misses Aiden, and slices up the ground instead. It lets out another screech and stomps it's feet again. Realizing that the beast must control earth, Aiden sees the walls around his hole begin to close. The screech unnerves Aiden but he knows he has to get out of the hole quick so he jumps up and puts his hands over his ears. He then goes and kicks the spider in the head right before it can bite him. The spider is knocked to the ground, and the crack on it's thorax grows bigger, travelling up the side of its body. "..Say y...ee goodbye..." The spider croaks out and slams its scythes into the ground, causing the earth to split open. The cavern splinters straight for Aiden, but the spider itself is left in pieces as the crack tears its body in half. Aiden simply moves to one side of the crack and then continues his course of action up the volcano. Making his way out of the trees he can see that he is already a quarter of the way up the volcano. Racing up the path Aiden is forced to stop as he hears a *snap* of what sounds like a metal wire. A mere second passes by as thousand of tiny metal needles are shot up into the air and begin raining down on Aiden. The needles are racing down so fast it seems that they are seeing which one can hit Aiden first. Aiden looks for anything he can hide under but there is no immediate shelter from the needles. He can't go down into the ground again in danger of going into the volcano. Their are to many needles to dodge all of them. Aiden grabs multiple crash grenades and decides to throw them up into the air. When the grenades explode they push the needles out of range from hitting Aiden. The needles fall to the ground, circling Aiden. Successfully evading the needles from falling on his skin, he is now faced with the problem of continuing on the path. His explosion has caused the needles to land in the earth around him and create a donut of spikes. Aiden looked at the donut that surrounded him now and surveyed the area to see if there were any openings that he could hop across but there were none that he could see. Aiden thought of an idea. He used his crash magic to blow a hole in the side of the volcano causing lava to come out at a molasses like pace. The lava ran over the spikes burning them up. As soon as the lava was within leaping distance, Aiden used disassembly magic over the hole he had created to stop the lava flow and then used disassembly magic on the lava to get rid of it. This cleared a small path for him. Aiden was able to jump to the cleared area. He made sure to keep an eye out for any future trip wires. He continues up the path and notices that the sky is beginning to be filled with a black snow. The falling ash is accompanied by bursts of magma and flame as Aiden finally reaches the top of the volcano. He spies the ring of flags that he is required to bring back down, and smiles knowing that he made it to the top. As he reaches for a flag he is surprised by a snake like creature forming its way out of the volcano. The snake glows with the body of magma and hisses its flame tongue at Aiden. To his surprise the snake begins to talk, "Ssssalutations boy. To have what you desssire you mussst make a choice. Choossse to fight, or choosssse to anssssswer my quessstion: What is it you want? Why sssstrive to be Sssss Classss? What are you willing to face to get their; your deepessst fears, intenssse pain, and pusssshing you mind and body to the limitssss? What will you ssssacrifice?" Coiling tight around the area of the flag, the snake extends its head to be right in front of Aiden's face. "Now choosssse..." Aiden is a bit dumbfounded that the snake actually gave him a choice of what to do. Aiden thought about it for a bit and thought that in order to save energy, he would answer the questions. "Alright, I'll answer your questions. What I want? What I want is to become an S-Class mage for Koma Inu. I wish to be S-Class for multiple reasons: Achieving the level of an S-Class mage proves to me that I have become stronger, it will also allow my team to go on different missions. I am willing to face my fears, pain, and I will push my body to any level in order to achieve this title. The only thing I am willing to sacrifice for this though, is myself." Aiden then prepared himself for a fight, just in case the snake didn't like his answers. The snake uncoils from around the flag, and slowly encircles Aiden. Even though they are inches apart, Aiden can feel the heat radiating from the snakes body. Coming up to his ear, the snake hisses, "You have made the ssssmart choice boy. But be careful...you ssssay you are willing to ssssacrifice yourssself...those who sssstrive for power, may losssse who they are along the way. Will you be happy with the man you become, ssshould you ssssucceed?" The snake then slithers back into the mouth of the volcano, leaving Aiden to get the flag. Aiden goes and grabs the flag from the ground and mutters to himself, "For me to lose my path, that couldn't possibly happen. Maybe when I was younger and more naive but I have grown. I must always be happy with myself, besides the others keep me grounded. I could not, would not, ever forget them or my beginnings." And with that Aiden makes his way down the mountain. On his way down hear hears a *click* followed by a loud explosion. All of a sudden the ground beneath his feet begins to gave in and a large mudslide occurs, taking both boulders and Aiden with it down the volcano side. Aiden is sliding uncontrollably down the mountain with the mudslide. He readjusts himself so sliding down on his back with his feet below him. Aiden assesses the situation and sees what he can do to at least get out of the mudslide. He surveys the area and sees a dead tree with an overhanging branch that Aiden could grab onto. Aiden reaches for it and grabs on. He doesn't hold on long until the branch breaks. Bark flies off of the tree into the mudslide as well. Aiden looks for a piece large enough to hang onto. He spots a perfectly sized one and gets an idea. With a mass amount of strength Aiden is able to catch the thick bark and climb on top of it. Aiden then stands on the bark and proceeds to surf down the mudslide on the piece of wood. The mudslide stops just short of the starting area. Aiden steps off of the wood and onto solid ground. He sees Samarra before him waiting for him. He then gives the flag to her and finishes the trial.